NEWS AND COMMENT-LAKE TEFE, AMAZON RIVER, BRAZIL: It has been put down to global warming as the primary reason for the death of 120 river dolphins in the Amazon River together with thousands of fish of other species. The scientists are still working on the reason but they believe it is simply that the water is too hot for them.
It is normally at around 32°C and in some places, it is exceeding 39°C. Apparently, temperatures rose between Friday and Sunday from 32°C to 39°C! That is very hot water. It’s hard to imagine. It is 102°F. The temperature is making it impossible for fish species and dolphins to survive. It looks very much like global warming creating an extreme drought and extreme temperatures.
The dolphins were found in Lake Tefe, which is in the northern part of the country, or in a tributary, as I understand it. The experts fear that there will be further deaths as the severe drought conditions are expected to continue for two further weeks.
The fish have been piling up in some rivers winding through the rainforest.
Water levels have fallen which makes it more difficult for people using the river to survive. And the dead fish are rotting in the river which contaminates water supplies and which affects 110,000 people.
Remarkably, in the Brazilian city of Manacapuru, there are reports of fish jumping out of the water to avoid its heat. This is in shallow waters where presumably the water is even hotter than 39°C.
One worker living near the river said that it is difficult because they need to bathe in the river. They can’t do that now because it’s contaminated.
In addition to global warming, scientists say the region is under pressure from the El Niño weather phenomenon. In addition to that, there’s been less rainfall than normal.
The Amazon Working Group said their water levels along one tributary of the Amazon River has been dropping by 8 inches daily.
The science director at the Institute for Amazonian Environmental Research, Ane Alencar, believes that what they are experiencing is the new normal thanks to climate change. And he is pessimistic saying that, “People will lose their goods, homes, cattle. We usually neglect the impact of drought on human life and health.”
Videos have shown vultures picking at dolphin carcasses beached on the lakeside. Teams of veterinarians and aquatic mammal experts have been sent to the region to investigate by the government’s Chico Mendez Institute for Biodiversity Conservation which manages conservation areas in the region.
There were an estimated 1400 river dolphins in Lake Tefe and as mentioned 120 have died which represents a substantial proportion at around 5%-10% of the total population.
And in one part of the river, it has dried up so much that the government is unable to deliver food directly via the river to isolated communities. The drought has had a major impact on riverside communities in the Amazon region. Many are isolated without access to good water because they’ve not got access to the river. And the river as their main means of transportation.
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